Cornice lighting fixtures for mass transit vehicles have reached a high degree of development for the attainment of optimum light distribution, energy efficiency, small weight and space requirements, durability, and low cost. There remains a need for improvement in cost reduction without sacrifice of the other attributes of the state of the art cornice lighting fixtures.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,387,415 discloses a cornice lighting fixture for mass transit vehicles which includes a unitary member defining a light housing and a trim panel. A light cover encloses a fluorescent tube mounted within the light housing. The light housing and trim panel are provided with an elongated shape of uniform cross-section of fiberglass reinforced plastic made by a pultrusion process. The light housing defines the inward longitudinal margin of the fixture and an outer mounting flange of the trim panel defines the lower and outward longitudinal margin of the fixture. The housing and trim panel cooperate to partially define an air duct for use in the heating and cooling system of the vehicle. A horizontal wall of the light housing has an inward securement formation that receives an upper edge of the light cover while the vertical wall of the light housing extends downwardly from the horizontal wall thereof for connection to the trim panel. The lower edge of the light cover is secured adjacent the connection between the trim panel and the light housing. The trim panel is concave and has upper and lower tabs for mounting an advertising sign. The tabs and the aforementioned securement formation for receiving the edge of the light cover are unitary with the trim panel and the light housing, respectively, and hence the pultrusion process is the only practical manufacturing technique.
Other prior art cornice lighting fixtures for mass transit vehicles are disclosed in the following U.S. Pat. Nos.: Schwenkler 3,210,875; Schwenkler 3,211,904; and Bhatt 4,157,584.
A general object of this invention is to provide an improved cornice lighting fixture for mass transit vehicles which affords economy of manufacture and versatility of design not afforded by the prior art.